DVD

This morning Jason and I met with our social worker to see a dvd of Hudson. We watched it a few times. It is short, but great!! He starts in a walker, then he stands holding one of the care givers hands. He takes one step, he seems to really like to stand up. He is very attentive and there must be quite a few people behind the camera because he is looking around and when they say his name he is responsive. He also gets startled by a toy they quickly sat beside him, which our sw said was a good thing. He stands holding himself up and he leans on the side of the crib. She said she thinks he has spent a lot of time in the walker because of the way he leans on things. He grunts and makes noises in the video. We could hear them say his name which is spelled Makhmud but pronounced Mockmood. We are very pleased with where he seems to be. Our social worker said he seems to be only a few months behind and then I reminded her the video was taken when he was 10 months old. She recommends that we treat him like he's 6-9 months for the attachment. We should rock him to sleep, hold him and feed him where we hold the sippy cup for him. We should hold off on teaching him independent skills and let him really rely on us and attach to us. We love this idea. I cannot wait to rock him to sleep and hold him all the time, although he looks like a heavy little thing!! The orphanage seems clean and nicer than what I would have thought. You can see colorful toys in the background and the cribs are in nice shape.

Hopefully we will know when we are traveling by next week.

Thank you all for all of your prayers, support, and encouragement!

Hudson Luke

WOW! I'm still trying to catch my breath! There's a million things running through my head, but one thing's for sure we are in LOVE! With this little boy who is 11 months old (DOB 8-7-07) with big brown eyes and wavy dark hair! I can't stop staring at his pictures. So here's what we know...

When he was born he weighed 6.3 lbs. and was 19.7 in. long. All we know about the birth mother is she was 22 years old when she had him. No info. on the father. His Russian name is Makhmud Zurabovich Mamadrizobekov (we're not sure how to even begin to pronounce this)! He does have a heart murmer which I am told is common in children and ususally goes away on it's own, other than this he is healthy.

What's the next step? We go on Thursday and get a dvd of him, which I cannot wait to see!! We don't have to sign any papers saying that we want him all we had to do was tell our social worker yes and they are calling Moscow tomorrow and telling them yes and then they will tell us when we need to be over there. So we should know this week when we need to be there. Our sw said looks like he might be home by the end of October, which is so awesome because we weren't expecting him to be home until December.

Our families are so excited! Already planning everything. Baby shower (Sep. 27), telling me what I'm going to need and do!! This is so great, did you all hear me shouting praises to the Lord today around 2:00?!

I have held tight to these verses...

He settles the barren woman in her home

as a happy mother of children.

Praise the Lord.

Psalm 113:9

Pics are here!! I'll post more tonight, THANK YOU LORD!!

I wish so badly that we had pictures to post, but we don't. I did however want to give you all a little update. We were e-mailed an itenerary of what our first trip will be like. It will only be 4 days and we will get to see him the first day we are there, which is great b/c we were originally told it would be 10 days and we wouldn't get to see him until the 7 day waiting period was over. Also, our paperwork is in Russia. Got there sometime this week. It took a while to get it over there because we had to re-do some of the papers and then mail them back to Michigan before they could be mailed over. So they weren't mailed to Russia until last Friday. So hopefully they have been or will be translated soon so that we can receive our referral e-mail.

I talked with a lady who made their first trip to Moscow at the end of June, she was so much help. It was great talking with her because I had so many questions but no one that had been through the Moscow program. THANKS TIFFANY FOR ALL THE ADVICE! They and the other couple they traveled with already have their court date and it is only 1 1/2 months from their first trip. That's awesome b/c they were saying it could take 2-4 months.

Please keep praying. We canno thank you enough!

What's Going On

Over the past week we have been learning more about the Russia program. With the Albania program I had almost 2 years to learn about it and asked many many questions. With Russia, we've only been in it for almost 4 weeks so I haven't had a lot of time to do research and ask a lot of questions. They are still saying for us to plan on traveling in August. The rest of our paperwork is being mailed to Russia tomorrow. If would have been mailed off at the beginning of the week but they sent it back for us to re-do some papers. Our sw, Chris (who is awesome), said for us to expect our official referral in about 2 weeks. I cannot wait for it because I want to see his face and learn everything I can about him.

Some random things we have learned...our first trip to Russia will be for 10 days. We will not get to see our son for the first 7 days. We will have to request permission to get into the orphanage and it has a 7 day wait. So we will get to spend 3 days with him, about 4 hours a day (hopefully more)! We will go to court on our second trip which is usually 2 or 3 months after we make our first trip. Moscow is very expensive, the hotels are no less than $220 per night, not good for my tight wad budget! There are over 30 orphanages in Moscow. We are one of the first 6 couples to go through the Moscow program with Bethany. There are no other families I can call and talk to about this because no one has experienced this program before, that part is no fun for me because I plan everything and it's rough not knowing too much. But it's also a great way for me to let go and let God! He's in control and that's better than anything I could ask for!

Our family is so excited, my sister already has almost all of the details of the baby shower planned. My mom and I were both asking my dad to build us a toy box, she's going to put it in the living room and fill it full of toys. She has also decided she is Mamaw and my dad is Papaw. Jason's parents are Grandmom and Granddad, Hudson will be their 3rd grandchild. We will insist that my sister's boyfriend Will is called Uncle Wilma, Wilmington, Willard, Willamina, etc. (J/j, we love you Willie Wonka)! Jason is my favorite to watch, he gets more excited every day. I'm usually the one doing all of the talking (imagine that) but tonight I watched him raise his hand at church and tell the entire congregation about our news! This is so much fun, keep praying for us, we're just beginning!

Praise the Lord!!

July 1, 2008, a day for our history books! My phone was ringing at 7:10, which if you know me well, you know I'm still snoozing! I looked at my phone, didn't recognize the number and rolled over only to hear the home phone ring. After the third call on my cell I listened to my voice mail. It was our social worker, Chris, I figured she was returning a message I had left her, no big deal. I rolled out of bed, called her back and she had a few questions for me! They had received a referral from Moscow, a little boy under 3. To say tears were streaming down my face is an understatement, I had been waiting on that call for almost 2 years! I called Jason and his response, "Are you serious? This is going to fast!" So fast? We've been waiting forever, but he's right, we have only been in the Russia program for 2 1/2 weeks! I called Chris back and told her "YES"!! I couldn't get in touch with Casey so I called Dad and then mom then Jason's mom and sister, everyone was so excited. Riding horses was a blur this morning, I was consumed with the thoughts that my son will soon have a face and I know where he is! God is so awesome!! I just praise Him for everything and we give Him all the glory!!

So what's next? We have to get some more paperwork turned into our agency and then it has to be sent to Russia before we can receive our son's information and pictures. Please pray this goes quickly and smoothly. They told us to expect to travel in August! WOW, that's soon! Our first trip will be 7-10 days and then we will come back home. Then they will give us the court date we have to be back over there which is usually 2-4 months after our first trip. This trip is 2-3 weeks and then Hudson Luke Carney comes home!! In the words of my crying mom, "So he'll be home for Christmas?" That's our hope!

You should have seen the girl's at the barn that had lessons today, those were some of the best hugs ever! They were so excited for me, I cannot wait to tell the others! Then my Granny was in tears tonight as we counted and Hudson will make her 13th great-grandchild, and in her eyes 13 is lucky b/c she and my grandfather were both born on Oct. 13th!

So my day started with tears and it's ending with tears! As I came in the house at 9:00 tonight, dirty, smelling like a horse, it was so refreshing to see my man. The one whose hand I've held for the past 5 years, the one whose brought many tears to my eyes when I think about a little boy running around the house yelling "Daddy"! We've waited on this and it's here, how sweet is this!! I turned my i-pod to the Judd's, Love Can Build a Bridge and we danced in the bedroom. So to you, Hudson Luke, "We'd gladly walk across the desert with no shoes upon our feet to share with you the last bite of bread we had to eat...because, son, love can build a bridge between your heart and our's...don't you think it's time!!"

Russia

After much prayer Jason and I have decided to change countries. We are now adopting from Russia instead of Albania. I am very excited about this change. We had not felt settled about Albania but did not want to rush to make a decision but this is something we had been thinking about for a little while. The Albania program is taking about 3 years or so for a young healthy referral. Bethany does more older and special needs referrals out of Albania and are one of the last to get young healthy referral, which is something we didn't know when we started out. But would I do it over again? You bet, I experienced a wonderful trip to Albania and met some amazing people. I have friends that I met through this process that I hope to be in contact with for a long long time. And in the past year and a half God has not stopped growing me and opening my eyes, it's just time for us to go down a different road.

As far as Russia goes, the wait time is 6-8 months and they are needing families for the Russia program. We started our dossier today and it will be completed next Tuesday and mailed to Michigan. There is only one more family with a dossier submitted to the program we are going through, but there are 8 families in the process, so I'm hoping our dossier gets approved and translated quickly so we can be next in line. But we've waited this long, it's all in God's timing! With Russia, it seems like if you don't dot your I's correctly they will send your paperwork back, so please say a quick prayer that our paperwork will not have any hold up's or be sent back. Thank you all for your love and support!

Update

This kitten was asleep on the radio while the radio was blasting!!!

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted anything, I'll try to do better! I don't have much information in regards to the adoption. It's taking a lot longer than we expected, the last family to get a referral waited 3 years.

What's gone on since the last post?

Jason had a birthday on May 23rd.

Our 5th year wedding anniversary was June 6th, which we spent working and then I left for North Carolina with my sister for an AAU basketball tournament. Came home on Sunday and we spent the afternoon together picking up hay in the hay field, doesn't that sound romantic!! These past 5 years have flown by and I love him more every day!

I have been busy with horse camp and lessons. The last week of this month we will spend showing at the Ranch Horse World Show. Jason has been very busy with work, they are in full swing. We are just hoping we don't have a drought like we did last year.

We have a new addition to our family, he's furry with 4 legs!! His name is Andy (our favorite show is Andy Griffith). He's is so cute and funny, I'm having a blast with him, he loves the kittens at the barn and begs me to put him in the trough to play in the water.

What's Going on at the Farm

We still haven't heard anything in regards to our adoption. It's getting frustrating not hearing anything at all. We haven't even been hearing if the committee has been meeting or if they have been giving out any referrals. I asked about this and hopefully we will hear something soon. I
will post something as soon as I hear something for those of you who are also wanting to know something.

If you haven't seen Albania in the news over the past few weeks then you should check it out. They had a horrible explosion while trying to destroy chemical weapons. It's very heartbreaking, please pray for all of these people. You can read more about it a http://www.plantersseed.blogspot.com/ and Cydil has some info. posted on her website http://www.waggoner.blogspot.com/

I don't have many pics to post, just a few from some snow a few weeks ago. One is me and one of my students Jordan, riding in the snow. The other is me and Zoe working in the arena while it's snowing. I know you guys up north reading this think we're nuts b/c 1" is a lot of snow, but we acutally got 6" of snow one night but it was almost all melted by the next afternoon.

Jason and I are both very busy with our business'. Grass is starting to grow, the sun is setting later, and the days are getting warmer. We're both in our element. I am busy with lessons (37 per week) and I'm booked for training through June. Our show season has started and we'll soon be busy almost every weekend. God is so good!!

I have a mare due last week, hopefully she'll have her colt this week sometime, when she does I'll post some pics.

Bitten By the Flu Bug

No adoption news, just an update on us. Jason has been in bed with the flu for the past 3 days, they gave him some antibiotics so he should be feeling better soon. But we're just hanging out watching family fued right now!! Horseback riding lessons start back the beginning of March and I've been busy with horses in for training which is good. We have already been to 2 shows and done well, our next show is in March. I will try and take some pics and post them soon. I hope you are all doing great and staying warm!